Insight into Pediatric Cases

Drs. Devang Shah and Sneha Vyas present the case of a young boy with chronic cold and cough.

Witch of the Horror Castle

This is a case of 6-year-old boy who stays in Bangalore. The weather there is very unpredictable due to which he suffers from recurrent cold and cough. The situation gets worse, so that eventually he has to be rushed to the local doctor or nearby hospital and has to be nebulized each time. He was referred by one of my patients who also lives in Bangalore. The child was first consulted through skype on 18th April, 2015.

The child’s mother said that he first develops a cold which then turns into a cough and he then starts wheezing. The cough is excited in cold or wet weather and is always worse by draft of air, lying down, after physical exertion, on swallowing or after eating. His cough is also worse in the evening after 4 p.m. or on walking. The modalities that make his cough and wheezing better are warmth in general, sitting, changing his position or on drinking warm water. He is generally very thirsty when he has an attack of asthma.

As there were a lot of modalities, I first used Boenninghausen’s concept of grand generalization for modalities of chief complaints. Here we get suggestions of the following remedies.

(Repertorized by Heiner Frei’s polarity analysis software)

I tried to explore more about the child and so gave him free space to talk about and describe himself. The child said that he did not like giant meteors. He does not like ghosts either and stammers when he talks about it. He said that these days there were no haunted houses. He was scared of vampires, witches, dinosaurs and the dragons. He is also scared of the dark and of being alone. He is afraid of ‘spooky boogie’ and when he is scared he tells his mother to put her hand on his back, which makes him feel better.

The child then described a scary movie where a witch curses the princess. He narrated how the witch comes out of the mirror – the princess presses a button and the witch comes out –1 whoop and curses her! He also dreams of the spooky boogie, of the witch. In the dream, the witch puts him over the coals and she was about to curse him with a spell. At this point in the case, he suddenly started feeling hot and wanted to be fanned and wanted to go out and not talk about it anymore.

Through the case, the aspect of witch came up again and again and had lot of energy to it. Hence that was chosen as an entry point in the case to explore the deeper experience. He perceived the witch as an entity who was powerful, invisible and who punched him in the face. He described her as looking weird, with long hair and sometimes was invisible. This story saw him going into a horror castle. This horror castle was disgusting and rampant with spiders, vampires, ghosts and witches. Humans were not allowed inside it, but one day a human entered this horror castle and from there he went into another secret castle. It was very scary there. The experience of that person was of being extremely scared, as there were bones around breaking or cracking. Whenever he got such a dream, the child was afraid and lay on his mother’s stomach or asked her to put a hand on his back.

He desired lemonade++ and salty food and was averse to sweets. Generally, he was thirstless and was aggravated in warm weather. Sleep was good and he slept with hands under his head. Perspiration, though moderate, sometimes wet his entire head.

Talking about the child, the mother said that he was very scared of dark and always wanted the light on at night. He also always wanted his mother to be around him; when playing hide and seek, he would often fear that his mother had gone away. By nature, he was quite agreeable and not aggressive, so he was easily bullied. The mother had observed that the child liked to crush bugs.

UNDERSTANDING

The main problem with the child was recurrent cold and cough which eventually lead to asthma due to which he had to be nebulized or given inhalers. There are peculiar modalities to the chief complaint which we have already repertorized. When I spoke to the child, I realized that his fears and dreams were quite characteristic.

Fears

Ghosts

Vampires

Witches

Dragons

Dinosaurs

Alone

Dark

Scary movies

When the child started talking about the fears his voice started to stammer, indicating a great depth and energy to his symptoms. When talking about the scary movie, he described the witch coming out of the mirror and cursing the princess. When talking about the story, he felt hot and did not want to continue talking and wanted to go out of the room. He also dreams of the witch asking him to walk on hot coals and about to curse him. In his description, the witch is powerful, looks weird and has long hair. She punches people in the face. Dreaming of the witch and the horror castle in which no humans are allowed into, he feels extremely scared and hugs in mother.

His mother added the following features about the child which help us understand him better:

Fears darkness

Wants the tube light on

Does not want the mother to leave at night

Loves lemonade and salty things

Hot

Thirstless

The experience of the child of fear and fright like from some horror creature and the reaction to cling or keep the lights on was pretty clear and was indicative of the plant family of Solanaceae. Now when we look at the symptoms we see the remedy Hyoscyamus showing up, which belongs to the same family. Based on the repertory chart and the sensation of Solanaceae he was given Hyoscyamus 200 to begin with and gradually shifted to Hyos 10m one dose, infrequently repeated.

FOLLOW UP

After starting the medicines the most important thing that mother observed was that the need for nebulization stopped completely. The frequency of cough and cold by December 2015 was around 80% better. The mother said he was like a completely normal child now. Most importantly he developed an eczematous eruption around the stomach. We explained to the parents that this was a good sign and she as advised to avoid any use of local applications. She obliged and the eruptions also disappeared in a few days. The family had moved to California and still wished to continue the homoeopathy. On moving to the U.S., he had only one attack of acute asthma which responded very well to Rhus tox which was prescribed after studying the acute totality. Otherwise he has been on Hyoscyamus 200 then 1m and 10m and now he is on Hyoscyamus LM 10.

His fears have reduced a lot and he has no more bad dreams. He still does not go to the bathroom alone. The eczema has disappeared completely. The mother said he was quite a troubled child a year ago. She never believed and trusted Homoeopathy but now she completely believes in the system. She advocates Homoeopathy to everyone saying that it is only a matter of faith and finding a genuine homeopath who can help you through your problems.

About the other song:

‘the other song: International Academy of Advanced Homoeopathy is a world class premium medical centre which puts good health and well being at the core of an academic culture dedicated to complete patient care. Situated in Mumbai, this institute is one in its kind where a team of 35 doctors headed by Dr. Rajan Sankaran (the pioneer of the Sensation Approach in Homoeopathy) come together and practice Homoeopathy. At the Academy, the students and practitioners are trained in advanced Homoeopathic practices, using new methodologies in combination with the traditional approaches, all with the use of state-of-the-art technologies. The Academy is also a meeting point for different schools of thought in Homoeopathy, where renowned homoeopaths – national and international are invited, to share their knowledge and experience, so that there is a constant flow of ideas on a common platform.

About the author

Devang Shah

Dr. Devang Shah graduated from D.S. Homoeopathic Medical College and has been practicing homoeopathy for the last three years in Pune. He feels blessed to have studied under Dr. Sunil Anand, Dr. Dinesh Chauhan and other teachers of the Bombay School of Homoeopathy. His goal in each case is to reach deeply and find the root from where the branches of disease originate. "May we reach the depth so that the spirit arises. Silence is the opening of an infinite world within each of us."

About the author

Sneha Thakkar

Dr. Sneha Thakkar, M.D (Hom) has had rich experience in treating varied cases homeopathically in her practice over the past decade. Keen observation, patience and persistence are the key values she adheres to professionally and personally. Her homoeopathic knowledge has been enriched working along renowned homoeopaths like Dr. Rajan Sankaran, Dr. Sujit Chatterjee, Dr. Jayesh Shah and Dr. Shekhar Algundgi at ‘the other song’ clinic and academy, Mumbai. She also has specialized clinical training in the fields of pediatrics and dermatology. An avid reader and an articulate writer, she has authored and helped edit many publications for different homoeopathic journals. Currently based in Toronto, Canada, she has also been associated with the Ontario College of Homoeopathic Medicine, in the capacity of lecturer and clinic supervisor.

dear dr jigar many thanks for going through the case. your question is very good my simple reason was when i repertorized the case using his modalities i got hyos more prominent than bell secondly when we look at rubric lying after so in the proving belladonna is more known for > lying after than < lying after. (there is something called as contradindications of remedy developed by dr heiner frei you need to read his literature to understand what i am trying to suggest) thirdly here the rubrics were used to arrive at short list of remedies and use the sensation approach to confirm the remedy i hope i could answer your question